Rank "Evita" Recordings

[MatthewJames607]

Posted: 2/3/14 at 11:45am

EVITA performances from favorite to least favorite:

1. Julie Covington
2. Patti LuPone
3. Elaine Paige
4. Madonna

CHE performances from favorite to least favorite:

1. Mandy Patinkin
2. Antonio Banderas
3. Colm Wilkinson
4. David Essex

JUAN PERON performances from favorite to least favorite:

- In this case I love them all (Paul Jones, Joss Ackland, Bob Gunton and Jonathan Pryce) equally.

MAGALDI performances from favorite to least favorite:

1. Mark Syers
2. Jimmy Nail
3. Mark Ryan
4. Tony Christie

ORCHESTRATIONS from favorite to least favorite:

1. The Film Soundtrack
2. The 1976 Concept Album
3. The 1979 Broadway Recording
4. The 1978 London Recording

[gavyj]

Posted: 2/3/14 at 11:54am

1. Patti LuPone and the OBC
2. everything else

[oasisjeff]

Posted: 2/3/14 at 11:55am

Just skipping the revival altogether?

[tazber]

Posted: 2/3/14 at 12:45pm

Patti





all the rest

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/3/14 at 12:46pm

I really need to take a Xanax before listening to the manic OBC with Patti. She's great and all but it's just so fast and so frantic that it makes me nervous.

[ljay889]

Posted: 2/3/14 at 12:49pm

Well Elena Roger's is the worst!

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/3/14 at 12:52pm

It's spelled Elaynuh Rodgerz's

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 2/3/14 at 12:56pm

EVITA performances from favorite to least favorite:

1. Julie Covington
2. Paloma San Basilio
3. Elaine Paige
4. Patti LuPone

CHE performances from favorite to least favorite:

1. Colm Wilkinson
2. David Essex
3. Patxi Anton
4. Antonio Banderas

JUAN PERON performances from favorite to least favorite:

1. Joss Ackland
2. Bob Gunton
3. Michael Cerveris
4. Tony Landa

MAGALDI performances from favorite to least favorite:

1. Mark Syers
2. Mark Ryan
3. Max Von Essen
4. Jimmy Nail

ORCHESTRATIONS from favorite to least favorite:

1. The 1978 London Recording
2. The 1980 Madrid Recording
3. The 1979 Broadway Recording
4. The 1976 Concept Album


Updated On: 2/3/14 at 12:56 PM

[Emma White]

Posted: 2/3/14 at 1:06pm

Elena Roger and Patti LuPone are just floating around the top of this list alternating spots as number 1.

Then Julie Covington and Elaine Paige are hanging out at the bottom, alternating spots as least favourite.

And then there's Madonna who is sometimes my favourite thing ever and sometimes I hate her in the role. Good acting, bad singing.

Juan Peron:
1. Michael Cerveris
2. Bob Gunton
3. Jonathan Pryce

Che:
1. Mandy Patinkin
2. Mandy Patinkin
3. Mandy Patinkin
4. Colm Wilkinson

[JoseLee_]

Posted: 2/3/14 at 1:17pm

Probably because I've owned the 2012 Broadway Revival way before the Original Broadway Casts' (on itunes) I'd go with Elena Roger. Love her voice. She IS Eva Peron.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/3/14 at 1:30pm

I always though Julie Covington was pretty rank.

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/3/14 at 1:40pm

Julie and Elaine screech too much. I can barely listen to their strident tones and pitch problems.

Patti's recording (the "American Premiere") is head and shoulders above the rest.

[Demitri2]

Posted: 2/3/14 at 1:56pm

Patti LuPone
Julie Covington
Florence Lacey
Elaine Page

I just don't play the OLC revival, the OBC revival or the soundtrack much at all.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 2/3/14 at 1:58pm

You need the entire libretto, vocal score and a language interpreter to understand what the hell Patti LuPone is singing. So, no.

[emlodik]

Posted: 2/3/14 at 2:05pm

"1. Patti LuPone and the OBC
2. everything else"

How sad for you. :-/

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 2/3/14 at 2:46pm

@ emlodik: I LOVE YOUR PALOMA SAN BASILIO AVATAR AS EVITA!!

:: TWO THUMBS UP ::



Updated On: 2/3/14 at 02:46 PM

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 2/3/14 at 2:58pm

Patti LuPone is the only Evita for me. I actually saw the film before getting the OBC Recording , and thought the it was a mediocre show that received way to much hype. However, after hearing Patti, I started listing to the score more closely, and found some good things in the score (the only ALW show I feel is actually good enough to be ON Broadway).
I was looking forward to the revival recording, but was sorely disappointed, the new orchestrations were a guise for smaller orchestra and I HATED Elena's accent. She sings quite well, but she's always Elena. And the end of RAINBOW HIGH? What was that note? Evita needs to be able to belt nth extremely high and low notes.
Patti however, became Eva in the role. The only problem with her recording is that RAINBOW HIGH is much to slow. When she did it live - wow, what an electric performance!

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 2/3/14 at 3:49pm

1. Patti LuPone and the OBC
2. everything else

^This.

Also, I prefer the tempos on the OBC. I know they were originally a bit slower on the concept recording and a lot of productions, including the recent revival, have followed that example but having listened to the American Premiere recording so many times it always sounds soooo slow to me in the original tempos. I think it got too fast near the end of Patti's run when she shaved something like 30 seconds off of "Rainbow High," but the tempos on the recording are just fine. My only complaint about the recording is that Patti doesn't go up on "star quality" for the end of both "Buenos Aires" and "Rainbow High," but I suspect that was Webber wanting it to be recorded the way it was written and not the way she chose to sing it each night. I find it a bit amusing that he eventually rewrote the end of the song to be belted for the revival.

[DAME]

Posted: 2/3/14 at 3:53pm

The Spanish cast album with Paloma SanVasilio is pretty good.

[trpguyy]

Posted: 2/3/14 at 4:45pm

We're really pretending that there is a better orchestration than the recent revival?

[Emma White]

Posted: 2/3/14 at 5:45pm

^This. The 2006/2012 (they're almost identical) version takes the cake. The OBC is okay. Buenos Aires on the concept album and the OLC is laughable.

[emlodik]

Posted: 2/3/14 at 6:09pm

Yes. The orchestrations on the 1997 Japanese album and the 1981 Spanish album are SUBLIME.

[emlodik]

Posted: 2/3/14 at 6:15pm

@ emlodik: I LOVE YOUR PALOMA SAN BASILIO AVATAR AS EVITA AVATAR!!

:: TWO THUMBS UP ::


Indeed! She is my favorite, with Elena Roger being close second. I also love Isabel Weiken from the original Austrian cast and Rocio Banquells from the original Mexican recording really grew on me recently. At the very least, they're all unique and edgy sounding, unlike those two generic pop princess "Wicked" expatriates they got sharing the role in the current US tour.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 2/3/14 at 10:16pm

The Madonna recording is pretty rank. Gone are the thrilling high notes in A New Argentina. Madonna sounds more tired than inspired in this song.

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 2/4/14 at 10:35pm

I'm really only familiar with the OBC and the Roger/Martin recent revival recordings but Patti/Patinkin take it home for me. There's so much character to them, to their voices and how they handle the material - they sound like two vipers circling each other, spitting. I find it really thrilling. With Roger/Martin I never get past the feeling that I'm listening to two people whose overriding concern is to sound very, very good, Martin in particular.

Also I have no idea what CarlosAlberto is talking about, Patti is perfectly intelligible. The only line I I've ever had trouble with was "I wanna be a part of BA, Buenos Aires, Big Apple", though I think it's a weird line anyways.

Updated On: 2/4/14 at 10:35 PM